TD to help customers pinch pennies with new app

Toronto-Dominion Bank is partnering with a NewYork-based app maker to help its customers use their smartphones to keep trackof every purchase they make.

This week, TD will announce a partnershipwith Moven, a company whose namesake app monitors spending habits and, asa result, allows users to tighten up their discretionary spending and savemoney.

If you want to get peopleto save money, you’ve got to stop them spending, so we’re helping themunderstand where they’re spending money,” said Brett King, Moven’s founder andCEO. “What we start to see, after three to six months [of usage] is that peoplein certain categories – dining out, catching taxis – start to level off.”

Moven’s app works in much the same way as health-trackingapps such as FitBit – but for personal finance. The service allows users tomake purchases using their smartphones as mobile wallets, but also keeps trackof every purchase. The result is an instant analysis of the user’s financialhealth.

As consumers continueto embrace technology, including expanding their expectations of banking productsand services to help them track spending and help with savings planning, increasedengagement is occurring. And financialinstitutions are responding by offering various apps and “PFM-light”capabilities that are piquing the interest of customers and members andbuilding increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.